An investigative report, jointly conducted by the British newspaper “The Guardian,” magazine (+972), and the Hebrew website “Local Call,” has revealed details of a secret agreement made by the Israeli government in 2021 with Google and Amazon under the name “Project Nimbus.”

This deal is worth $1.2 billion and aims to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli army and its security institutions.

The investigation showed that the agreement includes a secret mechanism known as “the wink,” which is used to indirectly inform the Israeli government if the two companies are forced to hand over their data to any foreign entity. This mechanism aims to bypass the restrictions imposed by US laws on this type of notification.

According to leaked documents, “the wink” is activated by a symbolic financial transfer to Israel within 24 hours. The transferred amount matches the international dialing code of the country that requested the data, as an encrypted signal understood by the Israeli government.

The deal also obliges Google and Amazon to grant Israel unrestricted access to their cloud services, even if these services are used in operations that may violate human rights.

This arrangement comes amid growing concerns about the potential use of these technologies in Israeli military activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For their part, the two American companies denied committing any legal violations and affirmed their full commitment to US legislation and international standards.